Remember.
Encouragement for now
Dear friend,
Being online has been difficult for the last several weeks. Amid the social media timeline wars, my nervous system—already susceptible to the fight-or-flight response due to fibromyalgia—has struggled. Most of what I see on my news feed is either heartache or contempt or some mixture of both.
Can you relate?
A few days ago in our kitchen, I told my husband through a sigh, “One of my greatest consolations is the study of history.” That’s because whatever horrors or battles for our souls we face today, they are nothing new. These are the same, ugly fights that my ancestors made it through—albeit, perhaps with different packaging. We will run, walk, and crawl through them, too.
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Confession
Through my decades of volunteering and working in the Catholic Church, I’ve heard curious insiders and outsiders ask priests something along these lines: “What’s the juiciest, most surprising thing you’ve ever heard in the confessional?”
Priests who hear sins confessed daily will often surprise people by answering questions like this one with, “Sin is not interesting; it’s all the same… nothing new.” I’ve heard many priests explain that this is one reason why they don’t remember sins that individuals confess.
What’s more memorable, then… than acts of evil that scar and destroy? The same priests will answer: healing, conversion, and expressions of love.
These are the most memorable beauties.
As a piece of cinematic art, the scene from The Passion of the Christ (2004) that has most remained with me is a small moment between Jesus and his Mother as he passes her on the street, having fallen down under a seemingly unbearable burden. “See, Mother?” He looks at her through an eye near-closed from bruising, all covered in sweat and blood yet quietly, somehow, glowing with an intensely determined focus; “I make all things new.”
Then, he pushes himself back up and moves forward.
Although we suffer and are struck down, those who live according to love are not destroyed. This is a key message of the Gospel; united in Christ Jesus the Redeemer and through the Holy Spirit, all things are presently being made new.
Remember… even through the weight and fatigue and pain of it all.
Let us only not fool ourselves, but live soberly, assured that we are pressing forward on the Way of Beauty, by remaining vigilant in our choices and rooted in a life of humble prayer.
Walking the journey with you,
Angela
I needed this reminder today! Thanks Angela!!!
So much of what you wrote here resonated with me, Angela. Yes, the heartbreaking mix of outrage and contempt on my social media feeds has been exhausting and dispiriting to witness. Like you, I also take great consolation in the study of history. There is nothing new under the son. Nothing in current events surprises me anymore. And that scene you mention from "The Passion of the Christ," when Jesus turns to Mary and says, "See, Mother, I make all things new!" has stuck with me for years too. I still get emotional just thinking about it.