The Devil Within

 


Speaking of love is tempting, nauseatingly so. It is readily nominated and promoted. Preached repeatedly, its complexities are unexplored, and its demands are ignored. Thus, Romeo confides in his friend Mercutio about love’s heavy burden with Juliet: “Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like a thorn.” (William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, I.4). This proves likewise where discipleship is concerned. 

Yes, how often I am disturbed by the presence of others: the persistent old lady who babbles about everyone, especially the priest and not necessarily in a complimentary fashion, insisting that she is holy! And what about that person who keeps asking for money to sustain their vices? Those who seek you when needed but ignore you otherwise: worse when burdened with others’ sins like a beaten dog. 

Josemaria Escrivà insists that I should not say that a person bothers me, but that person sanctifies me! That person is none other than my neighbour with whom the disciple shares his being in big and small ways - the parishioner who smiles but never offers a helping hand; companions whose hearts are aflame with spite; superiors who abuse the willingness to serve. These and others sanctify me, challenging me to renew my vision: to be as my Magister was: poor in spirit. 

As this renewed comprehension strengthens and is practised, the disciple’s nakedness reinforces the personal dignity of those encountered because it allows him to subdue that pettiness that underlines violence. What underlines all this is the embraced nakedness of the cross through committed love by self-emptying expressive of repentance – a radical rethinking of who I am in God’s eyes. 

Martin




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