Living sacramentally demands an enduring centeredness; an elusive blessing for most of us who move almost breathlessly through intense doing. As technology creeps into every part of our lives, the juggle of so many things gets ever more complex as our busyness extends to keeping up with email, social media, tv programs we are following, and seemingly longer and longer work days and weeks.
The consequence for this normalized neurosis of mad dashing from one activity to another acts to draw us away from center. Being in Christ becomes eclipsed by doing whether in His name or in fulfilling our secular responsibilities. An important dimension of the Franciscan life is living simply and recovering the contemplative dimension of our lives.
We imagine Francis doing much walking both alone and with his brothers and sisters seeking after ” the invisible, hidden things” spoken of in Hebrews 11. This is no luxury but a necessity if our faith is to deepen and our relationship with the Living Presence is to be visceral.
Add to busyness our insatiable attachments to stuff of which the rapid growth of storage facilities attests. Things attach to us and our sense of self quite readily. Consequently, with each new possession we are more deeply possessed and drawn further yet from the ” Center”. The more we accumulate the more we need to protect.
This week, our new car of less than 3000 miles was stolen from our driveway as we slept. Awakening to find it missing was truly terrible. Feelings of anger and sadness and of being violated all rose up in an instant. By the time I called in police and the insurance company and waded through the involved paperwork, I was exhausted.
Our attachment to the car was real and we are, in effect, in mourning over its loss. The teaching in it is an important one: Become less encumbered by stuff and then rest in deeper stillness.
Accumulations of things to own and worry about are blocks to the divine light. Kenosis, or self emptying, begins with downsizing the things that work counter to the centripetal force that brings us back home to soul and what is truly real and important. The blessing of loss, while painful, is to examine our faith and refocus with vigilance on the movement of Christ within and among us.
© The Harried Mystic, Br. Anton, TSSF. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.
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