Fr. Don's Daily Reflection - May 23, 2024
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”
For many of us setting off on a trip, even an easy one, is exciting, often to the point of making sleep difficult the night before. The poet W. H. Auden says that before any significant journey we really imagine ourselves as the great hero “setting off in search of an enchanted princess or the waters of life.”
We are much more likely to refer to life as a journey or voyage than as a bouquet or meal or garden. The journey image fits with our effort to understand life, to find our purpose.
The story of the Israelites' wanderings in the desert before getting to the Promised Land (Exodus) always suggests comparisons to our own life. Like them we're often afraid of the next stage; we, too, would rather stay put than grow; we grumble and complain; we're confused and fearful of the future.
Though this might be true of all of us at some point in life, it's especially the case with young people confused and worried about the future, family, friends, finances, faith. Those of us who believe that the answer to many of our questions is found in the teaching of Jesus might need patience with those, whether younger or not, who don't see that so clearly.
Those who have been on the journey longer and have reached some certainties might have to restrain themselves from passing on all those certainties to the young at one time.
Because we think we know how life should be lived doesn't mean it is always helpful to pour it into ears and hearts that aren't ready for it. We might all be going in the same direction but there are many different ways of doing it. Our patience and gentleness with the less sure might be the most effective help we give them.
Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”
