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There is a darkness that we are all led into by our own stupidity, selfishness, blindness, or by just living out of our false selves. I guess that is what most of us call “sin,” which is often an opening to grace and mercy. There is also a darkness that God leads us through for our own enlightenment and deepening. In either case, we have to walk through these dark periods by simple honesty, apology of some sort, surrender, letting go, forgiveness, and often by some necessary restitution or healing ritual. (I still hear of Vietnam, Afghani, or Iraqi vets who feel they must go back and help some children in those countries to themselves be healed—of whatever!) Eastern religions might call it “karmic restitution.”
Others might call these acts of repentance, making amends, doing penance, or stripping of the ego. By any account it is often major surgery and surely feels like dying (although it feels like immense liberation, too). We need help, companioning, and comfort during these times. We must let ourselves be led by God and also by others. But how can we know and value the light if we’ve never walked through some darkness first? To hope, you first have to feel hopeless.
Adapted from Hope Against Darkness: The Transforming Vision
of Saint Francis of Assisi in an Age of Anxiety, pp. 165, 173
The Daily Meditations for 2013 are now available
in Fr. Richard’s new book Yes, And . . . .
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