Sometimes a smile reaches us when we remember where we have been. We can’t fool ourselves, we have been to places that we often wish we could forget. Some would say we took a wrong turn, we followed the wrong directions. Many of us will say, “so lucky to be here”, and quickly add, by the grace of God.
And so, the thought comes, in all of us there is something like a gravitational pull that guides us across the stages of life. It does feel fragile, and I fear that it could be damaged and then we are really lost. For the sake of conversation, I offer three stages, you can come up with many more or a few less.
A first stage in our lives is basically self-centered, we can be really selfish in our youth. Teresa of Avila claimed that at age 50 she began her conversion experience. Conversion most probably from being self-centered to beginning to be other-centered. If we are over 50 and still stuck in that first stage, we need to move along. If we can’t move along, we need help!
A second stage does open up to becoming other-centered. We are able to consider the welfare of others and in the normal adventure that we call life, people fall in love, marry and raise a family. But, if the shadows of selfishness remain, they make a mess of things. Alcohol, drugs, easy money, the quick and the easy, the “who cares” aƫtude, cheap sex, gangs and violence, are vulture-like and they corrode commitments, and any future. A child born in the midst of these shadows will have a hard life.
In this second stage, with so much at stake, sometimes in the midst of profound despair, Christ becomes real. Not the sugary Christ of boring recitation of the rosary, or the nagging of piety, but the real presence of the Lord who offers the impossible – hope. This is at the very center of an honest to goodness religious experience as in a 12-step program, a retreat experience or the incredible pain that comes when we lose a loved one. We come face to face with our crude and limited reality and discover the absolute love of God in the person of Christ. The gravitational pull is nothing other than God who is constant in his invitation, “come and be with me, let me be with you.”
And on to the third stage. In the passage of time, the relationship with God becomes much more profound. But, not so easy, just ask Peter. I think this third stage can be called “radical acceptance of the Lordship of God”. The tune of it will be something like “take Lord and receive all that I have and all that I am”. And the Lord will say, “welcome home, let me wash your feet”.
I pray that our parish community, a community of communities, might help us along this path.