Not From Me But For Me
Peter began to say to Jesus,
“We have given up everything and followed you.”
Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you,
there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters
or mother or father or children or lands
for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel
who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age:
houses and brothers and sisters
and mothers and children and lands,
with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.
But many that are first will be last, and the last will be first.”—Mark 10:28-31
* * *
It is the sound that every mother of a toddler learns to fear: an eerie silence, followed by piercing squeals of unfettered delight.
My friend Heidi and I ran down the stairs from where we had been packing for a day at the pool, to find her not-quite-two-year-old Nicholas splashing about with great enthusiasm in the toilet.
Even the future Saint Grace was quite appalled, and we immediately moved to extract him. He quickly became as stiff as a board and twice his usual weight as he began to wail piteously and thrash about. He remained inconsolable, as we cruelly re-dressed him, buckled him in his car seat and drove him further away from his sole source of joy. That we were driving to a pool, a much bigger and more glorious version of his tiny heart’s desire, was an irony not lost on me.
This fear of trusting, this doubt that good things can follow a No to what we think we want or are currently enjoying, is not only a quality of toddlers.
A friend of mine who was preparing to enter the seminary tried to explain the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to his secular friends. “Dude, you’ve got to be kidding me! Those are the three things I am most trying to avoid!” one responded in shock.
It’s easy for me to laugh at that guy, but my own conversion was significantly delayed because I feared that if I took my faith seriously God would “make me a nun.” (That this was for me the worst possible fate is itself quite telling).
In Mark’s version of the today’s Gospel, Jesus promises that those who give up “house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands” for His sake will receive “a hundred times more…in this present age”—as well as persecution, and eternal life. We get the persecution and the eternal life part; but do we believe the hundredfold in this life?
This renunciation, this death to self, this emptiness, is a characteristic of all Christian life, not just those with what we call a “religious vocation.” And all, whether lay or ordained, married, single or professed, are called to live not as corpses but as “witnesses to the resurrection.”
In my first ever attempt at Lectio Divina, we were invited to imagine ourselves as a person or object in the story of the Wedding in Cana. I found myself imagining myself as one of the six stone jars in the story, and imagined myself being emptied and filled, day after day after day (before of course the Big Day in the story). As I felt the weariness of being emptied yet again, I felt a question rise to the surface of my mind, “Grace, why are you focusing on being emptied rather than being filled?”
Later, when my life unraveled and I felt as though everything was being taken away from me yet again, I was on my knees asking God, “What is it that you want from me?” And unmistakably the voice came back, “It is not what I want from you, it is what I want for you.”
One of the marks required for considering sainthood is a life characterized by joy. Although the saints invariably lived lives of renunciation and at times profound suffering, they were filled with something, and this emanated in a life of joy.
God is never outdone in generosity, and indeed I have experienced on many occasions this “hundredfold” and gifts of joy I never imagined possible. Whenever I have surrendered something to Him, He has replaced it with something better.
Yet, this is an ongoing story—I can look back on this as a promise fulfilled, but I must also look to it with the eyes of faith as a promise still to come. Some days I am gloriously happy in my current life even without a lot of things I thought I wanted/needed. But some days “dying to self” is like blowing out trick candles on a birthday cake, and Christianity can feel like a cruel joke.
Anyone who has attempted the Christian life for any significant stretch of time is familiar with these ups and downs, these seasons of plenty and famine. St. Ignatius called these spiritual seasons “consolation” for the good, and “desolation” for the down times. It is helpful to remember that just like the seasons of earth, they will come and go. In times of good, it is helpful to build memories and gratitude to recall and strengthen us for the times that are harder. And in the tough times, we can hold on to our memories of good and the promises of Christ.
Let us pray today for the grace to trust in the goodness and generosity of God at all times.
This post was originally published in 2018. Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay
