Monday, March 31
Today's Grace
I pray for the grace to turn my back to the (limiting) past and to embrace the (promising) future.
Scripture/Reading
From "The Still Point: Reflections on Zen and Christian Mysticism" by William Johnston:
That detachment - which at first sight seems a cold and inhuman virtue - is in fact of primary importance for normal human development, is an ordinary finding of modern psychology. Erich Fromm tells us that detachment is something so vitally linked to human growth that it must begin at the moment of birth and proceed over one's whole life - which, when all goes well, is nothing more than growth through a series of crises. "The aim of life," he writes, "is to be fully born"; and he goes on to say that some people "cannot cut the umbilical cord completely, as it were; they remain symbiotically attached to mother, father, family, race, state, status, money, gods, etc.; they never emerge fully as themselves and thus they never become fully born. Here from a psychologist is a program of detachment as ruthless as that of John of the Cross; showing that the human perfection aimed at by the psychologist is not alien to the Christian perfection of the saints. Indeed, John of the Cross uses words reminiscent of those I have quoted from Fromm, for he complains that some people, retarded in their spiritual life "still think of God as little children and speak of God as little children, and feel and experience God as little children." In other words, he wants people to get rid of children's ideas of God and to grow up.Reflection Questions
- In what ways have I not grown up? What are my umbilical cords connected to? What would it take for me to cut them?
- What are the "new heavens and new earth" that God is desiring for me at this moment? What attachments are keeping me from embracing this new reality?
Reflection
"Return of the Prodigal Son" etching by Rembrandt, 1636
"Abraham In Promised Land" by Andrew Bowers
