We experience all sorts of darkness in our active and spiritual lives. Yet it is a common error to refer to all of it as a dark night of the soul. With depression and suicide epidemic in the US, it seems to be an apt time to look into this difference more closely.
Why is it so hard to walk the talk of Faith? Why do we only permit God to refine us to a certain point, but no farther? “I drew them with bands of love” (Hosea 11:4)
Have you ever had an important choice to make and didn’t know how to discern the best decision? Our rich Catholic heritage has the answer: “Everyone must keep in mind that in all that concerns the spiritual life, his progress will be in proportion to his surrender of self-love and of his own will and interests.” (St. Ignatius of Loyola, sp. ex. 189)
Jesus is our Good Shepherd Whose voice we know because It exists in our soul, directing us to Him in whispers. But we must choose to follow it and to remain in the fold by habits of virtue.
“The author of life you put to death, but God raised Him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.” (Acts 3:15)
Some holy authors say that the blood and water which gushed forth from the side of Jesus was His Sacred Heart breaking as He looked upon His mother, helpless to console her anguish. The two hearts forever adjoined, for just a moment, experienced separation. And the whole earth quaked.
The Precious Blood which runs through Jesus’ Sacred Heart came first from the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He returned that Blood to her as she wept at the foot of His cross. Just as His heart broke for her sorrow, It breaks for yours too.
Profanity is extremely common even with Christians. Yet is prohibits dialogue and conversation. The question persists: Do we speak with God and others in His language of love or in the profane language of the world?
It takes two to tango and too often we choose to ‘dance’ solo, absorbed in our opinions, agendas, and preferences. At other times, we choose dance partners which the world offers to us: ideologies, online personalities, fashions, beliefs, lifestyles. When we let go of these things, we become available to dance with Him who is the Lord of the Dance. Ultimately, isn’t this the purpose of Lent?
In Lent we are presented with the violence in the human heart contrasted to the love of Christ. Carrying Christ’s cross with Him, side-by-side, is a blessing. It is a passion of two hearts, burning with love for each other, manifesting in deep sympathy each for the other. Each unwilling to stop the suffering because it is necessary. It is through this suffering together that love deepens.