The balance of being human

I like forward motion. It feels nice to know I am progressing toward something desirable, that my time is not being wasted but that I am actively creating change in a way that moves my life in the direction I am hoping to go. Maybe it's because I am the product of a generation who has had the world at our fingertips since we were in elementary school; it is difficult for us to be still, to be content and to accept what is before us.

As with all things, there are pros and cons to this; the past few weeks have given us a chance to practice the art of being still and having limited options, to realize this forward motion is privilege, not a right, and to be grateful for what we have. Even if we don't understand what's happening or see a way forward, this is time to be with God and to let God be with us. That's the real point of forward motion, after all.

In "Hope and Suffering," Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, writes that suffering is resistance to physical or emotional pain. The key, he writes, is to just hold it and to be with God: "God alone, it seems to me, can hold together all the seeming opposites and contradictions of life. In and with God, we can do the same. But we are not the Doer."

Perhaps this time right now is to allow ourselves to receive God and to let God's grace do what it wants within us.

Nikita Gill's poem "They Say, 'Yes, You Will Suffer'" is another way of saying all of this about suffering. It is another way of making sense of this business of being human. It is another way of daring to hope. It goes:

"They say, 'Yes, you will suffer.'

"But they don't say, 'But you will also experience

the deepest of joys. You will experience the births

and deaths of the greatest of loves. And the sun

warming the blood under your skin after the

coldest of winter. And the rain against your

window will sing you to a peaceful sleep. And you

will awaken some mornings in the arms of

someone who will love you most of all. There will

be moments when your soul will gleam so

beautifully, even the universe will bask in your

happiness. Yes, you will suffer. But you will be

happy beyond your wildest dreams. And that will

make every second of suffering worth it.'

"They should say that. Because it is that balance

that makes us beautifully and softly human."

Let's remember what Jesus' appearance to the disciples after his resurrection tells us: all the doors being closed and even locked can't keep our risen Lord from us. He is coming to wish his peace upon us.