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October 22, 2009
> 11:30 PM
dark night 1:5:3  One more quote from St. John of the Cross - Book 1, Ch. 5 of Dark Night of the Soul - verse 3 - getting into how we view our own journey of spiritual growth."There are others who are vexed with themselves when they observe their own imperfectness, and display an impatience that is not humility; so impatient are they about this that they would fain be saints in a day. Many of these persons purpose to accomplish a great deal and make grand resolutions; yet, as they are not humble and have no misgivings about themselves, the more resolutions they make, the greater is their fall and the greater their annoyance, since they have not the patience to wait for that which God will give them when it pleases Him; this likewise is contrary to the spiritual meekness aforementioned, which cannot be wholly remedied save by the purgation of the dark night. Some souls, on the other hand, are so patient as regards the progress which they desire that God would gladly see them less so."This is not exactly the same as scrupulosity, but it's similar and I'd say, related. Those of us who beat ourselves up over every tiny little "infraction" are dealing with the far end of the pride stick. The expectation of quick perfection in the spiritual life is a disastrous thing. First of all, it's a sure-fire recipe for being miserable - ALL the time. And it may even get to the point of rooting us right out of any kind of faith life. I guess that means we can actually beat ourselves to death - sort of. "...so impatient are they about this that they would fain be saints in a day." I'll not go into different ideas of what a "saint" is. I think we're talking about a perfected human person here, re-made into the Image of Christ. So, if someone has the idea, for example, that once you know all the right beliefs, have studied all the right doctrine, etc., that you then "have no excuse" and are immediately able to always make the right decisions - uuuhh, you're in for a ride folks. This is not to understand the concept of spiritual development, formation - not understanding that simply because one is now a Christian, that one has (in a Catholic context for instance) gone through RCIA or CCD classes, any other Confirmation classes - this doesn't mean that one's insides have been transformed into the kind of "insides" that see as God sees, think as God thinks and act as God acts. None of that means that you are able to fully participate in your sharing of the Divine Nature as a Child of God. It's not just about making your mind up and deciding something. Many young Christians (not just "young" chronologically) are done the disservice of being taught in this way. We simply do not seem to be telling people that this whole Christian "thing" is about being transformed into fully Human Beings (capitals on purpose) - into the kind of people He created us to be in the beginning. We do not seem to be telling people that simply because you know the "rules" doesn't mean you have the constitutional ability to follow them - oh, and that it's really not about following rules - Lord God have mercy. Tell people this, those who have a place to tell them. Please tell them that knowledge is not growth. Tell them that believing right things is not equal to being a right person. Tell them. Labels: saints, spiritual formation 0 Comments:| permalink | e-mail me | 
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