Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter
“In the world, you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.” John 16:33
How do we “take courage?” I mean, how does one lay hold of it? Where do we get it? I offer two suggestions toward an answer.
St. Benedict says that it is by cultivating and living humility and obedience. We hear something of his reference to its value in this quote from the Prologue to his rule:
This message of mine is for you, then, if you are ready to give up your own will, once and for all, and armed with the strong and noble weapons of obedience, to do battle for the true King, Christ the Lord.
The other place is really the same but looked at from our desire. I speak of graced willingness. It is very much part of the inwardness of the person. We can hear it in a quote from Fr. Bernard Bro.
All the God of Jesus has to say, in history and in our daily lives, is: ‘Are you willing?’ … Are you willing to entrust me with your past and future? …. Are you willing to have me? Are you willing to lead your life with me, the real life, the life of hoping and giving, of truth and joy? No longer us, then, purifying our ideas or inventing our idols, no longer us seeking God by the light of our own courage, our own notions: but God, God himself, with Jesus’ face, embodied in the concrete events of daily life, coming looking for us and asking this one question: ‘… are you willing to make your life a partnership with me?
Reflection by Fr. Xavier Nacke, OSB
Posted in Articles for Lent, Daily Reflections, Lenten Resources