Lenten Reflection - Sunday, 3rd Week of Lent
Spiritual Homecoming Yields More Questions Than Answers
"In those days, in their thirst for water, the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "Why did you ever make us leave Egypt? Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?" – Exodus 17:3
Our pilgrimage to God and our true selves takes us through the land of uncertainty. Old answers become inadequate before life's present challenges. Even though past ways of looking at ourselves and relating to others are less than freeing, we prefer their familiarity to the present vulnerability of trust. The certainty they offer is safer than facing our fears of abandonment or of the unknown. We are caught in the present between the shackled familiarity of the past and the expansive freedom of a promising future. We do not like living with the tension, with uncertainty.
Between a certain past and a future not yet known lies the present moment. Before we can move forward, we need to acknowledge our dependence on certainty and our fear of trust. In such vulnerability, we discover the birth of hope within – a confidence rooted and grounded in God's goodness and care. We find ourselves thirsting for water that gives fuller life and love. We are invited to walk in our present condition, with its unknowns and pregnant possibilities – to live the present questions in order that deeper questions and deeper trust arise.
"Lord, help me to be vulnerable, to trust you, and understand the present uncertainties in my life."
Fr Tri Dinh, SJ
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Suggested reflection format
"In those days, in their thirst for water, the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "Why did you ever make us leave Egypt? Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?" – Exodus 17:3
Our pilgrimage to God and our true selves takes us through the land of uncertainty. Old answers become inadequate before life's present challenges. Even though past ways of looking at ourselves and relating to others are less than freeing, we prefer their familiarity to the present vulnerability of trust. The certainty they offer is safer than facing our fears of abandonment or of the unknown. We are caught in the present between the shackled familiarity of the past and the expansive freedom of a promising future. We do not like living with the tension, with uncertainty.
Between a certain past and a future not yet known lies the present moment. Before we can move forward, we need to acknowledge our dependence on certainty and our fear of trust. In such vulnerability, we discover the birth of hope within – a confidence rooted and grounded in God's goodness and care. We find ourselves thirsting for water that gives fuller life and love. We are invited to walk in our present condition, with its unknowns and pregnant possibilities – to live the present questions in order that deeper questions and deeper trust arise.
"Lord, help me to be vulnerable, to trust you, and understand the present uncertainties in my life."
Fr Tri Dinh, SJ
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Suggested reflection format
posted by magis at
6:58 AM
