|
We live a long time in order to become lovers. God is like a good parent, refusing to do our homework for us. We must learn through trial and error. We have to do our homework ourselves, the homework of suffering, desiring, loving, winning and losing, hundreds of times.
Grief is one of the greatest occasions of deep and sad feeling, and it’s one that is socially acceptable. Most understand and want to walk with you in your grief. When we lose a beloved friend, wife, husband, child, parent, or maybe a possession or a job, we feel it is okay to feel deeply. But we must broaden that. We’ve got to find a passion that is also experienced when we have it, not just when we’re losing it. And we have it all the time. Don’t wait for loss to feel, suffer, or enjoy deeply. But the grief process is still a marvelous teacher and awakener; for many men, in particular, it is the only emotion that shakes them to their core.
Adapted from Radical Grace: Daily Meditations, p. 282, day 293
(Available through Franciscan Media)
The Daily Meditations for 2013 are now available
in Fr. Richard’s new book Yes, And . . . .
|
