In the Midst of Great Poverty.
Praying
with the Nativity scriptures can help us with a profound support for
our everyday lives. The gospels paint us beautiful portraits
of how Our God comes to us in the midst of great poverty. The
age of Elizabeth, Gabriel's annuniciation to Mary, no room in the
inn, enemies out to get the newborn, all surround the central mystery
- our God is faithful. Our God's fidelity is not only not limited
by great poverty, it is most apt in places of great poverty.
The way the nativity happened then can tell us a great deal about
the "style" of our God. And, it can open our eyes and our expectation
to the places of great poverty in our lives now. Whenever I
ask, "How can this be a place of promise?" or "How can I expect God
to be present in this mess?" I am being invited to experience the
mystery of the Incarnation in my life. Eventually, I begin to
look for and to really anticipate special intimacy with Jesus in the
difficult, challenging, painful, empty, power-less situations of my
life. If I desire to find intimacy with God in all things, I'll
pay special attention to the povery places of my life.
Intimacy
born of Patience.
The very root meaning of "patience" - from
the Greek and Latin - is "to suffer." We struggle to be patient,
when we are reluctant to suffer. We lose our patience, when
others sin or disappoint us. We are im-patient with anything
that "takes time." Each of us can name the ways that we can
easily say, "I am not a patient person." At our worst, we have
a "hot head" or a "short fuse."
Actually, patience
is something that is learned. Like all virtue, it comes from
practice - from developing a habit. We develop the ability to
be patient, through small experiences of suffering small things.
This "acceptance" - this living in trust with what is really before
us - is practiced when we smile on a cloudy day, as we take a calming
deep breath when something doesn't go as we expected, whenever we
endure with serenity even a small loss. To be untroubled, unruffled
by minor disappointments gives us the strength to develop greater
patience - to suffer greater poverties.
Patience
That Becomes Fidelity.
To grow in patience is to grow in fidelity.
Being faithful implies a whole host of things. It doesn't mean
we are perfect. Fidelity begins with patience and it leads to
living our faith with trust in God. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary has these synonyms for "faithful":
- Loyal - a firm resistance to any temptation to desert or betray;
- Constant - stresses
continuing firmness of emotional attachment without necessarily
implying
strict obedience to promises or vows;
- Staunch - suggests fortitude and resolution in adherence and imperviousness
to influences that would weaken it;
- Steadfast - implies
a steady and unwavering course in love, allegiance, or conviction;
- Resolute - implies
firm determination to adhere to a cause or purpose.
Each image of what fidelity
looks like could be a meditation for us in the days ahead.
Desiring Patient Fidelity...
One of the biggest mistakes we make is to
think that being faithful is a thing in our heads that we just decide
to do, or a matter of "will power" that could be contained in a New
Year's resolution. In reality, patient fidelity is a gift from
God. For sure, it will involve choice and an emotional commitment
on our part. It will lead to death to myself more and more.
But it is fundamentally a grace from God. Appreciating its power
during this holy season - perhaps coming into great touch with my
poverty and the areas that call to me for patience and fidelity -
allows me to turn to God to ask for the gift. To desire is to
know what I need and to long for it.
In the days ahead, while the memory of how
our God faithfully comes to save us still fills our hearts, let's
open our hands in prayer, to beg for the gift of patient fidelity.
The more we ask, the more we create a space in our hearts to long
for the gift and to receive it. The more we long for the gift,
the more likely it will be that we will cooperate with the grace we
receive. Then, our hands will be open, holding out our whole
lives in trust.
Lord, Jesus, my life is in your hands.
It has always been your gift.
I know you want me to use it better than
I do now.
I hold it all here for you to take it and
receive it.
I surrender my life to you today,
knowing you will teach me to imitate you
in fidelity.
I hold up my poverty, my anxiety, all of
my sadness.
I surrender them to you today,
trusting that you will fill me with enduring
patience.
My desire is to
be with you
in all the places you are not afraid to
go.
My desire is to be transformed, freed,
filled with joy,
that I might join you in loving as you
have loved me.
With open hands,
I ask you to send me to be with others
in all the poor places of their lives.
Give me your love
and your grace,
and I will be at peace in my poverty
and ask only for the grace to serve you
more and more.
Inspired by St. Ignatius' "Take, Lord, Receive" from the Spiritual
Exercises.
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