Imprisoned?

 


Duplicity points to unsurpassed subjectivity dressed up as objectivity, limited by prejudices and self-gratifications, not our discipleship. Self-centred, we can only pretend to be Minorem (lesser servants).

Cocooned in our exclusiveness, protected from the world beyond our cloisters, we reinforce our presence so that God is merely the total of our identity. Focused on ourselves and consumed by our needs, we perceive others as disposable. This undermines projects that intend to witness our identity but which actually serve to justify our existence.

Rejecting the cross as the narrow door to understanding our discipleship, personal emotional impositions prevail. We prefer to write books about models of our spirituality. Finding solace in our traditions and historical identity, we are confined to a darkened cave, enslaved to consuming time; we are unwilling to risk and embrace evangelical hope. 

Our resistance to evangelical hope prevents us from grasping faith’s true significance. Subjected to “Kronos” (consuming time), we misunderstand ‘Kairos’ (opportune time): the evangelical dynamism as an invitation to proclaim the Good News. Instead, we retreat to safety, claiming that we no longer have the numbers or energy to sustain our witness impact. Refusing to live, we accept death as the natural outcome, which inhibits our creativity to deal with the difficulties encountered, so that darkness seals the heart, limiting the Magister’s healing power.

The inability to deepen our faith either results in rigid impositions where legality, not the Good News, dominates, or a laissez-faire attitude anarchistic in its application. If there is an answer to this dilemma, it is not found in the numerous meetings but in a renewed conversion of our heart focused on the Magister: “For the LORD your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn his face from you if you return to him” (2 Chronicles 30,9). 


Martin


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