Jewish grandmother is giving directions to her grandson who is coming to visit with his wife: "You come to the apartment complex. I am in apartment 14T. With your elbow push button 14T. I will buzz you in. Come inside, at the elevator hit 14 with your elbow. When you get out I am on the left. With your elbow, hit my doorbell."
"Grandma, that sounds easy, but why am I hitting all these buttons with my elbow"?
"You're coming empty handed?"
My wish, dear reader, is that I never come to Pause for Reflection empty handed.
Recently I was reading "Spirituality and the Seasons of our Lives" by Father Ron Rolheiser. I went through several paragraphs and realized how much this seemed to apply to my life:
As a young man, Nikos Kazantzakis, the famous Greek writer, contemplated becoming a monk and once spent a summer touring monasteries. Years later, writing on the experience, he recounts a marvellous conversation he had with an elderly monk, Fr. Makarios.
At one point, he asked the old monk: "Do you still wrestle with the devil, Father Makarios?" The old priest sighed and replied: "Not any longer, my child. I have grown old now, and he has grown old with me. He doesn't have the strength. I wrestle with God."
"With God!" Kazantzakis exclaimed in astonishment. "And you hope to win?" "I hope to lose, my child," the old man replied, "My bones remain with me still, and they continue to resist."
Among other things, this story highlights the fact that our spiritual struggles change as we age and go through life. The struggles of youth are not necessarily the struggles of mid-life and beyond. Maturity is developmental. Different things are asked of us as we move through life. This is also true for spirituality and discipleship.
How does our spiritual life change and demand new things from us as we grow?
As I continued reading I realized how accurately this article described my life. The article led me to reflect on ultimate realities. I am grateful and blessed to have reached the point in my life where I can contemplate levels of discipleship and how I miss or exceed the call to stewardship.
It is always our task to use the opportunities available to us in our particular life situations. Through all the seasons of our soul the Good Lord knows our hearts and blesses the efforts we make in our particular stage of spiritual development. The hope of heaven is not just for the holiest of saints, but it is our joy as well.
The Lamb, Christ, has ransomed us from death and joined us to the eternal kingdom. The Good Shepherd still tends his flock, correcting us, pasturing us and giving us rest.
Not everyone is blessed with life beyond retirement from life's vocation. Gratitude for long life should be our first emotion. I trust that God will reward us all for the efforts we have made during the stages of life he allots to each.
In something John of the Cross calls Radical Discipleship he asks the questions:
"What can I still do so that my life makes a contribution?" And: "How can I now live so that when I die my death will be an optimal blessing to my family, the church, and the world?"
