Like our spiritual forebearers who fled to desert or mountain, these last years of worldwide tragedy have called us into the cave of the heart, where in solitude and often loneliness, many of us have entered a new dark night or inner dying. We too feel the tension of a world struggling for meaning. We too feel an anguish of heart over the cruelty and injustices that harm all creation. We too wonder: can our longing for contemplative peace be of benefit to others and soothe the tears of fire that pierce our souls?
These moments of emptiness become a portal that ushers in the intensification of Divine Presence, revealing our hidden wounds, and magnifying the Great Faith, that is more profound than any belief. We acknowledge the sacred loss that we bear, for all that we have not done, for all that we could yet do, for all the ways that the world (you and I) has traded this eternal irreplaceable path for something irrelevant, for straw, for prestige or honor or fame.
When we feel the grief of the troubled but do not succumb or despair, when we bear the inevitable adversity that assails all humans without losing faith or hope, we fan the sparks of divinity, the fire of the Compassionate One that inspires our souls.
Mystics the world over emphasize that their most profound insight into reality can be described as “oneness” or “interdependence.” Through the veils of creation’s great variety and abundance, they discover simplicity, unity, and wholeness. The mystics also teach us that we are compelled to live an ethical imperative, in which oneness and interdependence with all reality becomes the ground of our concern for social justice. The very depth of our love for life, and our gripping awareness of human suffering, requires that we cannot be indifferent to the injustices in our world.
We are rescued from partiality by Love Itself. Our hearts become tender and merciful, and we wish to be servants of holiness, opening our souls to the unconditional gift pressing in on us.
