Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”

We say in criticism of a movie or a book that the characters are like cartoons; they lack subtlety or are too purely black and white. Most of us know or can know with a little reflection how complex we ourselves are, how little we understand ourselves.

Put together the complexities of myself and a few other people in ordinary human relations and it's a marvel we get along so well, that we 'understand' each other as much as we do. Even with the help of psychology and the study of human behavior, with all that our self-reflection tells us, we remain mysteries to ourselves.

Looking back on our actions, even those of the day, we have to ask often why we did or didn't do something, why our anger flared up, why we fought so hard for something. We are pretty impenetrable for others and, to some degree, for ourselves. “What happens is that I do, not the good I will to do, but the evil I do not intend” (Romans 7:19). St. Paul goes on to say: Who can free me from this? His answer--and ours: God through Jesus Christ Our Lord (7:25).

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!”

Reply to Fr. Don at: DTalafous@csbsju.edu

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