Our preference for maintaining the status quo and our willingness to remain apart from one another stem from our failure to see ourselves as we really are.
We know we have our faults and have made mistakes along the way, but we have suppressed our regret and our remorse in order to minimize their effects on our ability to maintain our self-image. We may worry about how others see us, but how we see ourselves is of far greater importance; it is what enables us to project an air of self-sufficiency and confidence, and a well maintained self-image allows us to keep the constant pricking of conscience from weakening our resolve to stand firm. We conceal our essential aloofness beneath a superficial openness and friendly smiles on the face of the gregarious shell concealing our vulnerability. All feelings of weakness and humility are denied; our pride rules, and nothing must be allowed to bring us down.
Thus we are successfully restrained by our own imagination: by the envisaged unacceptable consequences of breaking out from our seclusion, and behind that restraint is a shadowy presence, as it were, contentedly drumming fingers on the list of wrongdoings we are unable to leave behind. Wisdom and Prudence have become unrecognizable. Our failure to see or feel the power that presses us deeper into the shadows, confirming our shame and our sinfulness, distorts any occasional appreciation of quiet solitude into a felt need for continued isolation. One of the most effective tools in keeping us from contributing to the building of God’s kingdom has halted us in our tracks. Satan has us securely bound; he has, as it were, taken us out of the game. For as long as we remain in this state he has no further need to concentrate on us; we keep ourselves inactive without any great trials or aggressive attacks from him. He knows we are incapable of standing against him. He is right, for we do not see our predicament for what it is: we have come close to believing in the image we project and we have no inkling of his involvement in our suppressed inner struggles. We have almost shut our conscience away deeply enough to make it inaudible: almost, but not quite; and we please him most by having almost completely forgotten that he exists.
Despite the difficulties involved in dragging ourselves out of these depths, great things can happen when we are in isolation. Of itself (and in this particular situation) the isolation is more likely to be a hindrance than a blessing, though The Holy Spirit can and does transform individual lives wherever and whenever God wills. What brings our solitary sorrowing to God’s feet with a longing for His touch is the radical dismantling of our self-image and our descent into a sense of utter lostness.
Hagar, abandoned in the desert with Ishmael, her son, heard ‘the angel of God’ calling to her: ‘What is wrong Hagar?’ he asked. ‘Do not be afraid, for God has heard the boy’s cry in his plight. Go and pick the boy up and hold him safe, for I shall make him into a great nation’ (Genesis 21:17,18).
Here we have the Bible’s portrayal of God’s first indication that Ishmael was dear to Him and would achieve great things. (See also 16:7-12 and 21:13, 19-21). The Qur’an also tells the story of Abraham, Ishmael and Issac, and though the differences one would expect to find in two entirely separate sources are evident, the story is essentially the same.
We are all called to that place at God’s feet, and whether we are within the Church, on the fringes of it, or outside it, we are called together; our paths, however separated and seemingly irreconcilable, are all heading in the same direction. Much of the troubled disagreement between us arises from the inevitable narrowing of the spaces between our paths as we move inexorably toward a distant convergence.
The descendents of Ishmael are spoken of first in a Vatican II document referring to those who are outside the Church but nevertheless sharing the same call:
‘...the plan of salvation ...includes those who acknowledge the Creator. In the first place amongst these there are the Mohammedans, who, professing to hold the faith of Abraham, along with us adore the one and merciful God, who on the last day will judge mankind. Nor is God far distant from those who in shadows and images seek the unknown God, for it is He who gives to all men life and breath and all things, and as Saviour wills that all men be saved. Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience. Nor does Divine Providence deny the helps necessary for salvation to those who, without blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God and with His grace strive to live a good life. Whatever good or truth is found amongst them is looked upon by the Church as a preparation for the Gospel. She knows that it is given by Him who enlightens all men so that they may finally have life.’ (Lumen Gentium 16.)
Pope John Paul II has also referred to the breadth of inclusiveness that calls for the Church to enfold all of us, however far away or lost we believe ourselves to be.
‘... we need to look further and go further afield, knowing that "the wind blows where it wills," according to the image used by Jesus in his conversation with Nicodemus (John 3:8). The Second Vatican Council, centered primarily on the theme of the Church, reminds us of the Holy Spirit's activity also "outside the visible body of the Church." The council speaks precisely of "all people of good will in whose hearts grace works in an unseen way. For, since Christ died for all, and since the ultimate vocation of man is in fact one, and divine, we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner known only to God offers to every man the possibility of being associated with this Paschal Mystery." (Dominum et vivificantem 53)
Left entirely to our own devices, most of us lack the faith, the strength and the perseverance to turn our awareness of shame and sinfulness from the negative and wounding confirmation received from the powers that restrain us, into our own distressing but healing admissions in the sight of the One whose love and whose power will free us.
We need the increased faith and strength that comes from daring to merge our own vulnerability with the jumbled doubts and fears of others. Focussing our thoughts and our conversation on matters of faith, even if only with one other person, for an occasional few minutes when the opportunity arises is all that is needed to begin the process. There are times when we are already assembled with a common purpose and with our shared accumulations of beliefs and doubts only just beneath the surface. It takes just one of us to begin.
Let us communicate with each other beyond the ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye’, and the everyday chatter in car parks or over cups of tea and coffee. We all have the same Spirit within us, driving us towards a standing up and a speaking out, but all fear of the consequences dissolves in the completely unseen and private decision to allow our conscience to be heard. There is the voice, the touch, the impenetrable way cleared for our journey, and the path pointed out.
Our vocation already resides deep within us. Let us release it, that we may hear it and understand.
‘Hearken’ is an old word but the urgency of its meaning lives on.
‘... we need to look further and go further afield, knowing that "the wind blows where it wills," according to the image used by Jesus in his conversation with Nicodemus (John 3:8). The Second Vatican Council, centered primarily on the theme of the Church, reminds us of the Holy Spirit's activity also "outside the visible body of the Church." The council speaks precisely of "all people of good will in whose hearts grace works in an unseen way. For, since Christ died for all, and since the ultimate vocation of man is in fact one, and divine, we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner known only to God offers to every man the possibility of being associated with this Paschal Mystery." (Dominum et vivificantem 53)
Left entirely to our own devices, most of us lack the faith, the strength and the perseverance to turn our awareness of shame and sinfulness from the negative and wounding confirmation received from the powers that restrain us, into our own distressing but healing admissions in the sight of the One whose love and whose power will free us.
We need the increased faith and strength that comes from daring to merge our own vulnerability with the jumbled doubts and fears of others. Focussing our thoughts and our conversation on matters of faith, even if only with one other person, for an occasional few minutes when the opportunity arises is all that is needed to begin the process. There are times when we are already assembled with a common purpose and with our shared accumulations of beliefs and doubts only just beneath the surface. It takes just one of us to begin.
Let us communicate with each other beyond the ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye’, and the everyday chatter in car parks or over cups of tea and coffee. We all have the same Spirit within us, driving us towards a standing up and a speaking out, but all fear of the consequences dissolves in the completely unseen and private decision to allow our conscience to be heard. There is the voice, the touch, the impenetrable way cleared for our journey, and the path pointed out.
Our vocation already resides deep within us. Let us release it, that we may hear it and understand.
‘Hearken’ is an old word but the urgency of its meaning lives on.
‘In the end the notion that someone was “calling” me won’t make one bit of difference. Unless it is the truth.’
(Paula D’Arcy. Where The Wind Begins.)
